To me, Pan's Labyrinth is one of the few movies (if not, the only) that I've watched which combines the concept of imagination, fantasy, war, violence, and horror (to some extent) at the same time all into one movie which is one of the reasons as to why this movie is amazing.
In this movie, you will be following the adventures of Ofelia, who is traveling to her stepfather's base (they're having a civil war) in Spain. She is going there together with her pregnant mother Carmen. When she gets there, she spots this labyrinth and suddenly, strange stuff start happening such (fairies start appearing and guiding Ofelia around, etc.).
Anyways, the actors of this movie are absolutely amazing. Their appearances and emotions are absolutely fabulous. Ofelia is a very fine example of a good character, she's a nice girl, who believes in fairy tales, and has a big imagination, and at the same time, the actress that played here manages to bring those traits to life in the movie. That's wonderful! Another great example of a character is Captain Vidal (I have no idea what the actors and actresses names are so bear with me) who is an evil, narrow minded man who kills people and just makes you want to hate him. The actor who played him manages to do this absolutely wonderfully, he, at not one moment, seems to care about anybody except himself, his points of views, and keeping his family name alive. There's tons more really good characters in this movie (Pan, Mercedes, etc.) but I wouldn't be able to list them all! Anyways, this movie does a great job with the characters. What the fantasy creatures lack in costumes and realism in appearance, they make up for with their personality and emotion. The only thing I don't like is that weird creature with those hands that he uses as his eyes, he looked really weird, and had no personality at all, and his acting was bad to some extent.
Now, this movie justifies it's R (or 14A rating if you live in Canada) very well. At first, I thought this was just going to be some fantasy movie for grown-ups that would have to do with war, etc. Well, boy, was I wrong. This movie is GRUESOME, with lots of blood, and violence. I cringed when I saw the scene in which a person's mouth was cut open (with a knife), and that very same person sewed it together with a needle and thread (ugh), and drank alcohol afterwards...well, you get the idea. There aren't too many scenes with blood and gore, but each scene goes to extreme lengths that I simply must agree with it's R/14A rating.
This movie, much like the Bridge to Terabithia, uses the concept of imagination very well. Ofelia, is a girl with a big imagination, with a big imagination, you can create a whole new world. Well, that's exactly what happens with Ofelia. She starts seeing fairies, after a while, she follows one of them and ends up in a labyrinth, where she meets Pan, a faun creature. Afterwards she starts going around and the strangest of things happen to her, such as her having to go inside a tree, to destroy this absolutely huge enchanted frog, so that she can get a golden key inside of it's belly, and give it back to Pan so that she can become the princess of this kingdom. Now, what I like most about this movie's use of imagination, is the fact that you really can't seem to tell if what Ofelia is experiencing, is a figment of her imagination, or if it's real.
The story of this movie is good, the characters are good (except for that weird eye-hand monster thingy), I like the music, I like how imagination is used. So what could it be that I find wrong about the movie that doesn't make it perfect?
Well, that would have to be that probably way more than just 50% of this movie takes place in the real world while probably less than 30% takes place in Ofelia's fantasy/imagination world. I felt as if there wasn't enough focus on Ofelia's fantasy world, I mean, in the trailer, that was what was shown, Ofelia going on various adventures, etc., but when I see the movie, I felt a bit disappointed. So that's one reason i didn't give this movie a perfect rating. Oh yeah, and another reason is that weird eye-hand creature, he wasn't vital to the story at all, he was only given a few minutes of screentime and for the entire part he was shown, he wasn't really that good of a character.
So, by all means, watch this movie if you want to! I'd recommend this to all people except those who hate reading (the movie is in Spanish and has English subtitles. I didn't have a problem with the reading, but if you're a person who hates reading, you will hate this movie, but it's really such a shame that you won't be able to see this movie because it simply is a great one).
